A Russian anti-drug unit has stumbled across radioactive soil samples from the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster as well as some dangerous traces of plutonium, officials said Thursday.

Drug police discovered several canisters of soil "that probably came from Chernobyl" and an undisclosed amount of the dangerous substance used as fuel in nuclear power plants, a spokesman for the Federal Drug Control Service said.

The unusual find came in the vehicle of one of the suspects of a gang that ran an underground laboratory for making amphetamines and other drugs, the spokesman told AFP by telephone.

Officials promised to release more details about the men they had arrested and their possible motives next week. The drug agency spokesman said official could be dealing with militants, but did not give any further details.

2010 Korea bomb 'tests' probably false alarms, says studyNew York NY (SPX) Oct 10, 2012
This spring, a Swedish scientist sparked international concern with a journal article saying that radioactive particles detected in 2010 showed North Korea had set off at least two small nuclear blasts--possibly in experiments designed to boost the yields of much larger bombs.
Shortly after, the pot was stirred with separate claims that some intelligence agencies suspected the detonations ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency.
All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement